New Road Needed

Nn Should Improve Hidenwood-oyster Point Corridor

March 19, 1995

Newport News should push ahead with the Middle Ground Boulevard extension project. The city sorely needs another link between Warwick Boulevard and Jefferson Avenue.

For a relatively good-sized city, Newport News should not be so hard to navigate. What could be simpler than a city whose two main thoroughfares run parallel for some 20 miles from one end of the city to the other, roughly a mile apart and separated by a railroad track?

But the city has been slow to take advantage of this symmetry. In the roughly eight miles between Fort Eustis and J. Clyde Morris boulevards, there are only three crossings between Warwick and Jefferson with overpasses at the track.

In arguably the city's most bustling corridor, between Oyster Point Road and J. Clyde Morris, there is no crossing. Motorists go around their elbows to get to and from the Hidenwood business and residential area to the Oyster Point business park.

Extending Middle Ground Boulevard west from Oyster Point would help resolve that problem. A number of corridors have been proposed; planners must strive for a delicate balance between what will serve traffic patterns best and what will be least disruptive for homes and other buildings in the route's path.

Certainly some occupants will have to sacrifice their sites for the greater good. But the city does not have the luxury of not building this connector. The four main roads surrounding the corridor Middle Ground will serve are congested now and will only get worse. The City Council must give top priority to the larger interests of the city and region.